Hallucinations

Have you ever seen something that wasn't really there? Heard someone call your name in an empty house? Sensed someone following you and turned around to find nothing? As Oliver Sacks assures us, hallucinations are rarely a sign of insanity; much more often they are linked to sensory deprivation, intoxication, illness, or injury. The author of Musicophilia and The Mind's Eye here takes us on a journey of sensory imagination, from the arcs of light and Lilliputian figures seen by some migraine sufferers to visits from the departed among the bereaved, from visions that have led to religious epiphanies to the experiences of psychedelic drug users—including Sacks' own experiments as a young neurologist in the early 1960s.

"Another gem of a book.... With a fine sense of narrative, Sacks deftly integrates literature, art, and medical history around his very human, often riveting, case histories.... This is a model of humane science made compellingly readable."—Library Journal (starred review)